Contents

History

Umeni-Zulu began by providing the U.S. government with cryptographic technology products before expanding their service into collecting intelligence both domestically and internationally. They contract for the CIA and have been involved in paramilitary actions across the world as well as utilizing cyber-security in a variety of clandestine actions. They are a highly private group that keeps itself hidden well from public scrutiny, but they have been accused of being a MOSSAD front and even a CIA front. This is leading to speculation that some private military corporations (PMCs) may be intelligence-gathering fronts for domestic and foreign interests.

Summary

Watch Dogs

Umeni is a corporation that made money while letting its engineers carry the legal liability over an incident, which lead to them being jailed, some of who are now members of DedSec. This is mentioned at the beginning of the exclusive mission "CTRL" (part of the White Hat Pack DLC). They have their own building, as seen in Watch Dogs: Bad Blood. Other than this, not much else is known about them.

Watch Dogs 2

A profile of a Umeni security officer.

Umeni has a much larger role in Watch Dogs 2. It is revealed that they are a private security company and will serve any corporation that needs their aid. This is seen in Watch Dogs 2, where if certain factions (like security guards and robots, New Dawn, and more) are in need of assistance, they will call for backup, and Umeni will show up at the area almost instantly in their customized security Sonarus LX patrol vehicles.

Because it is a legal faction, they will never engage in gunfight with the police, instead they will assist them to catch Marcus or any other illegal faction members. However, the police will still arrest or open fire at Umeni only for serious violations (such as shooting at Marcus for unspecified reasons). Umeni members can also be framed.

They are the third most dangerous faction in the game, having all seven enemy archetypes, plus guard dogs and being occasional allies with the Police. They also sometimes employ the Security Robot, and can temporarily shut down CtOS 2.0. However, they aren’t as hard to escape from as the Police are, and don’t have the Talos, MRAP, Coast Guard or Helicopter. Still, they can be hard to shake off if they manage to enter their Sonarus LX cars and chase the players, as those cars are quite fast and have well-balanced stats.

They are also the most recurring faction in the game, appearing in almost all main operations and some side operations.

The Church of the New Dawn security officers are actually reskins of the Umeni guards/soldiers, and they count as members of Umeni. The New Dawn guards are much weaker than the normal Umeni guards, as they only have the Gunman in their ranks. But, like normal Umeni guards, the New Dawn guards can call Umeni reinforcements.

It's unknown why the Umeni guards protecting the Invite Headquarters and Mark Thruss's penthouse have different outfits than the normal Umeni guards. They might be Mary Catskill's personal guards, as she is the CEO of Invite Corporation, and Thruss might have borrowed them from her. The guards protecting Thruss's penthouse might also be the United States Capitol Police, charged with protecting the United States Congress, including its members. The fact that the guards protecting Thruss's penthouse don’t count as police might be a developer oversight.